The World Health Organization (WHO) says more than 10,000 Ebola cases and 5,000 deaths have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as new hotspots emerge despite slowing transmission in some areas.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said this at a news conference on Wednesday. He said displacement, rainy weather, attacks on healthcare facilities and difficulties reaching remote communities were complicating response efforts.
He said Kenya had reported nine Ebola cases, including two deaths, while Nigeria had confirmed one case. He commended both countries for responding rapidly and transparently to imported infections.
Ghebreyesus urged countries that had imposed travel restrictions to lift them, warning that the measures punished countries for being transparent, discouraged timely reporting and undermined international efforts to contain the outbreak.
He said WHO was helping countries neighbouring the DRC prepare for possible imported cases and supporting the affected country’s response through research and vaccine development.
“WHO experts have recommended adding two Bundibugyo-specific vaccine candidates, ChAdOx1 BDBV and Moderna’s mRNA-1469, to an ongoing clinical trial in the DRC.
“The candidates were developed by the University of Oxford in partnership with the Serum Institute of India and Moderna, respectively, to provide protection against the Bundibugyo virus,” Ghebreyesus said.
He said the trial, led by the DRC’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, followed the launch in October of another trial using Ervebo, a vaccine approved against the Zaire Ebola virus.
Ghebreyesus stressed that vaccines alone could not stop the outbreak. He called for continued focus on early treatment, contact tracing, isolation, safe burials and community engagement in affected areas.
On climate change, Ghebreyesus said six proven climate and health interventions could prevent 1.6 million deaths annually while generating trillions of dollars in economic and fiscal benefits worldwide.
He made the remarks ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP31, scheduled to take place in Türkiye next week. He said WHO would advocate for stronger recognition of climate change as a health crisis.
Climate change was already fuelling disease outbreaks, increasing heart and lung diseases, cancer and asthma, and making healthy diets less affordable for vulnerable populations, he said.
“Proposed interventions included heat-health warning systems, climate-resilient water and sanitation services, cleaner household energy and efficient fossil fuel pricing policies.
“Implementing the measures globally can generate an estimated 3.9 trillion dollars in economic welfare benefits and another 5.4 trillion dollars in fiscal benefits annually,” he said.
Ghebreyesus described climate action as an investment in healthier people, a healthier planet and stronger economies. He urged governments to prioritise measures that protect public health and livelihoods.
The WHO chief also said only 14 per cent of adolescents worldwide met the organisation’s recommended level of daily physical activity, while one in four reported having no physically active day in a typical week.
He said new global estimates released on Wednesday showed that physical inactivity among adolescents had remained virtually unchanged over the past 15 years.
WHO recommends that children and adolescents aged 11 to 17 engage in an average of at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily to maintain good health, he said.
According to Ghebreyesus, girls continue to face greater barriers to physical activity than boys in almost every country and region, highlighting persistent inequalities in opportunities to exercise.
He urged governments to invest in safe schools and public spaces, walking and cycling routes, supportive transport policies, and affordable sports and recreation facilities to encourage active lifestyles among young people.
Physical activity helps prevent heart disease, some cancers and diabetes, while supporting healthy weight and mental well-being across age groups and communities, he said.
Ghebreyesus also said 63 countries had eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease (NTD) by June 2026, marking progress towards the global targets set for 2030.
He announced the figures while presenting the organisation’s midterm evaluation of its global NTD roadmap. The evaluation also showed a 19 per cent reduction since 2020 in the number of people requiring interventions.
He said only 10 cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in 2025, describing the progress as encouraging despite persistent funding challenges and uneven results across countries.
However, the WHO chief warned that funding cuts had disrupted programmes and services, while reliance on a small number of donors threatened the sustainability of interventions.
He urged governments and partners to increase domestic financing, sustain external support and integrate NTD services into primary healthcare and universal health coverage.
“NTDs comprise 21 diseases that predominantly affect poor and marginalised populations in tropical and subtropical regions, often worsening existing health and socioeconomic inequalities.
“The WHO roadmap, adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2020, targets the elimination of at least one NTD in 100 countries and a 90 per cent reduction in the number of people requiring interventions by 2030.”
Ghebreyesus said he would launch a global initiative, Together for Science and Health, next Tuesday to strengthen public trust in science and tackle misinformation and disinformation affecting health decisions.
He said the initiative would be inaugurated ahead of World Science Day for Peace and Development, observed annually on November 10. It aims to strengthen links between science, society, policy and communication.
He warned that misinformation and disinformation had become systemic public health risks, distorting decisions about vaccination, treatment and disease prevention, and undermining emergency responses worldwide.
The initiative would go beyond countering false claims by improving access to reliable evidence, strengthening information integrity and building public trust through transparency and community engagement, he said.
He called on governments, institutions, civil society organisations, the media, technology companies and communities to support the initiative and promote credible scientific evidence in health-related decisions.
